Chapter 10
The next morning, I found a copy of the summer program application on our kitchen table.
Dad had printed it for a student Ms. Harris had mentioned the night before. I checked the deadline, wrote it in large letters on a note, and put the papers in my schoolbag. Ms. Harris could make sure the student received them.
At breakfast, Dad asked how I felt about the event.
“Good,” I said. “One of the sixth graders wants to test the pond near her house.”
“You might have started a whole team.”
“I hope so.”
He put my school event photograph on the refrigerator. Caleb had caught me explaining a chart with one hand while answering a question. I looked comfortable in it.
After school, Vanessa asked to talk to me before she took Ava home. We sat on the porch where I had once told Ava that Dad would listen to her.
“I brought something,” Vanessa said.
She held out a thin folder. Inside were copies of my award invitation, the scholarship letter, and the emails confirming my place at the program. On the first page, she had written the dates clearly.
“I kept the originals from you once,” she said. “I want you to have everything now.”
I took the folder. The cream letter was there, its deadline still painful to see.
“I know giving it back doesn’t fix what I did,” she said.
“It matters that you gave it to me.”
She folded her hands. “Caleb asked if I would say sorry to you in front of him and Ava. He wanted to know I meant the same thing when everyone was listening.”
I thought about how frightened he had been to show Dad the envelope.
“Okay,” I said.
We went inside. Dad was making dinner. Caleb and Ava sat at the table.
Vanessa told them she had hidden the letter and had been wrong to do it. She apologized for telling me Dad didn’t care about my ceremony. She turned to Caleb and said he had done the right thing when he brought the letter out.
Caleb stared at her. “I wish I’d done it sooner.”
“I wish I’d listened sooner,” she said. “You were the child. It wasn’t your job to manage my reaction.”
He looked at Dad, then back at her. “Thanks for saying that.”
Ava slid from her chair and hugged Vanessa around the waist. I went to stand beside them. Vanessa looked at me, leaving the choice to me. I put my arm around Ava.
Dad watched us from the stove. When I glanced at him, he smiled.
That weekend, I took the younger students to the creek with Ms. Harris. Dad drove the equipment. Caleb photographed our work for the school display. Ava collected leaves for an art project, and Vanessa helped her identify the trees.
One student dropped a sample bottle into the shallow water and looked horrified.
“I did that too when I started,” I told her. “We’ll get another one.”
She looked relieved. We collected a fresh sample together.
That evening, Ms. Harris sent a photograph of our group to the families. I printed it and placed it beside my certificate on the shelf in my room. My first award stood next to our teamwork award from the summer. The folder Vanessa had given me rested beneath them.
I kept every page.
A week later, I walked into the living room carrying the next school invitation. It was for the science club’s winter showcase.
Dad was reading. Caleb and Ava were choosing a movie. Vanessa had come over for dinner and was helping Ava make a paper sign for her art display.
I stood in the doorway and held up the invitation.
“The showcase is Thursday at six.”
Dad reached for the family calendar. “Thursday at six.”
Caleb said, “Can I bring the camera?”
“Yes.”
Ava wanted to know whether she could show her picture to my friends. Vanessa asked what the club needed help setting up. Everyone began talking at once.
I laughed and put the invitation on the table where they could all see it.
Dad looked up at me. “What will you be showing?”
I told him about the new samples and the younger students helping me. He listened until I finished.
Later, when the house was quiet, I checked the calendar. My showcase was written in Dad’s handwriting. Beneath it, Ava had drawn a star. Caleb had added a tiny camera. Vanessa had written that she would bring the display boards.
I stood there for a moment, looking at all the names around mine.
Then Dad came into the kitchen and asked if I was all right.
“I am,” I said.
May you like
He put an arm around my shoulders. I leaned against him, knowing I could tell him the truth if that ever changed.
Across the room, my invitation lay in plain sight. On Thursday, I would walk into school with my project and look for my family in the audience. I knew where they would be.
